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Nelson Mandela has made “dramatic progress” and may be going home “anytime soon” said his daughter Zindzi, as South Africa prepared to celebrate his 95th birthday. His doctors also have confirmed that his health is steadily improving, according to a statement of the South African presidency. Mandela has been in a Pretoria hospital since June 8.
“I visited him yesterday and he was watching television with headphones,’’ said Zindzi Mandela in an interview with British media.
“He gave us a huge smile and raised his hand … He responds with his eyes and his hands,” she said.
Mandela, who turned 95 yesterday, was gaining “energy and strength”, said his daughter. “I should think he will be going home any time soon.”
The latest description by Zindzi — who is one of Mandela’s daughters by his second wife, Winnie Madikizela Mandela — is an improvement from court documents filed by the family earlier this month which said he was on life support and near death.
The news of the improvement in Mandela’s health boosted his supporters in South Africa and around the world who celebrated his 95th birthday yesterday, a day declared by the UN as a way to recognise the Nobel Prize winner’s contribution to reconciliation.
Interest in Nelson Mandela International Day has ignited as a result of the former South African president’s admission to hospital in Pretoria and people finding ways to honour his ideals.
A Johannesburg-based foundation named after Mandela and numerous other groups have asked people to volunteer 67 minutes to charity to match what they say are the 67 years that Mandela served his community. Mandela led South Africa through a tense transition from apartheid to democracy and became president in the country’s first all-race elections in 1994.
President Jacob Zuma will mark the birthday by overseeing the donation of houses to poor white families in the Pretoria area, in line with his Cabinet’s theme to commemorate Mandela’s birthday this year by focusing on food security, shelter and literacy.
In Cape Town, labour activists held an event at St George’s Cathedral yesterday, in remembrance of Mandela’s years of service and to encourage people to donate food to charity while leaving messages of support for the former leader’s family.
Ebrahim Fakir, of the Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa, told Al Jazeera that many of these charitable acts downplayed the aspects of recognition, injustice, as well as radicalism, which are required to redistribute resources and create sustainable livelihoods for most of the South Africans.
He said the perception about Mandela had changed over the years towards a more reconciliatory Mandela without downplaying his revolutionary, and radical, aspects.
Mandela, who is in critical but stable condition, has been admitted to hospital since June 8, and hundreds of well-wishers have left prayers and messages of hope at his Johannesburg home and at the hospital where he is being treated.
Legal documents have said Mandela’s breathing is machine-assisted.
Meanwhile, lawyers for former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela will return to the Eastern Cape High Court in Mthatha on Thursday to seek the return of the remains of three family members to Mvezo, The New Age reported.
Earlier this month, the court ordered him to return the remains of his grandfather’s three children to Qunu from Mvezo, where he moved them two years ago.
Mandla Mandela’s spokesperson Freddy Pilusa reportedly told the newspaper: “Chief Mandla has no intention to insist on the repatriation of the remains back to Mvezo.
“However, since the court order was based on false and misleading information, it is important to reverse what we view as an unfair decision.”
According to the newspaper, this unreliable information included that Madiba was in “a permanent vegetative state”.
Earlier yesterday, the former statesman’s 95th birthday, presidency spokesperson Mac Maharaj said that Mandela’s condition was “steadily improving”.
The remains are those of Mandela’s eldest son Madiba Thembekile, who died in a car accident in 1969; Mandla Mandela’s father Makgatho Mandela, who died in 2005; and Mandela’s first daughter Makaziwe Mandela, who died as an infant in 1948. — Sapa
Online Reporter